post : Your BPM Can Predict Your Risk of Cardiac Disease

Your BPM Can Predict Your Risk of Cardiac Disease

How fast your heart beats may predict how long you live. There are a lot of fancy and expensive medical tests that can be done to determine your risk for heart disease, stroke, and premature death. But there’s one test that you can actually do at home sitting on your couch that costs nothing, takes about one minute, and will give you a pretty good idea of your risk.

Here’s how you do the test. Sit quietly and rest for 15 minutes. Then find your pulse in your wrist or your neck and count the beats for one minute. If your resting heart rate is more than 84 bpm, your overall risk of cardiovascular disease goes up by about 40%. And the odds are you will live about a year and a half less than others your age.

But if you will lose your excess fat and start exercising, your heart rate should slow, and your risk should return to normal.

The ability to conveniently and accurately monitor one's vitals at home has increased greatly in the last few years. Relatively inexpensive devices are available for measurement of pulse, blood pressure, glucose and even A1c are probably worth considering. particularly for those who have concerns. Most offer the ability to store history on a computer, so that you can watch for trends in the readings as (hopefully healthy) changes in your life are made.